642 Tiny Things To Write About: A Post Script

Today’s prompt: Write the P.S. for a resignation letter.

(Post Scripts always remind me of this song by the Beatles..)

This prompt made me wonder when the art of the P.S. came to be. It seems like such a Victorian practice; though I am sure it goes farther back in time. P.S. is short for Postscriptum, meaning “written after”, and that’s what it always struck me as, an “Oh I forgot!” or an after thought. I’m not a huge fan of them, and they seem odd in business correspondence, reflecting a writer who seems unorganized in their thought processes.

As far as resignation letters are concerned, I think the only circumstance in which I’ve written an actual one was when I resigned from a church council. It was one of the few times I’ve actually walked away from a position because it had become untenable to stay. It was short and to the point and did not include a P.S.

With the exception of a summer job at Sears, most of my jobs have been exceptional and the people wonderful. Most of my resignations have bittersweet affairs–leaving a job because I was moving across country, or needing to be closer to home when my kids were growing up. I’ve been at my present job for over 18 years now, and the next resignation letter I compose will most likely be when I retire.

Before I write my P.S. a bit of context. A few years back, one of our vendors failed to follow basic procedures about servicing a Power Distribution Unit (PDU) in the Data Center at work, and opened a side door of the unit, which brought down all the power in the room. If you’ve ever been in a Data Center during an unplanned power down, there is this almost deafening SLAM and then dead silence. As silence filled the room, the vendor said, “Did I do that?”. So its become a running joke at my work to tell the new people–“DO NOT OPEN THE PDU SIDE DOOR”. So here’s my P.S. to my resignation letter.

P.S. I want to reiterate how I have enjoyed working with all of my colleagues over the years. I have learned so much from everyone in the department and would like to pass on the most important piece of knowledge that I have gained from my employment here. Always remember–Do Not Open the PDU side door.